Lower Dens‘ beautiful new record
Escape From Evil is finally out today on Ribbon
Music, and to commemorate the occasion, we’ve invited
Jana Hunter and the band to take over the site for
the day. So stick around and get deep with the band, and stay up on
all of their posts HERE. And if you haven’t heard the record
yet, this is a great starting point: lead single “To
Die in L.A.” is available for free download
here.

The saloon doors of Boiler Room’s SXSW showcase
never stopped swinging this year.

With a hip hop slant provided by the likes of Kaytranada, Rae
Sremmurd and Ghostface Killah, the stage also witnessed sets from
Beat Junkies turntablist J Rocc and
Piñata rapper Freddie Gibbs. Now
that the barbecues have cooled, Boiler Room has unveiled those two
shows for your home-viewing pleasure.

Watch Gibbs’ set in the player below and check out J Rocc
underneath. Don’t miss Gibbs’ excellent new
Pronto EP.

The post Watch Freddie Gibbs and J Rocc in the Boiler Room at
SXSW appeared first on FACT Magazine: Music News, New Music..

This summer, The Rolling Stones will embark on their first
full-fledged North American tour in eight years.

The 15-city Zip Code tour kicks off May 24th in San Diego
and runs through mid-July. Each performance promises a set of
greatest hits and “special gems” from the band’s
iconic catalog. Fans can also look forward to a unique stage
set-up that extends deep into the audience, as well as massive
video screens and special effects.

Coinciding with the tour, the band will release a deluxe reissue
of their 1971 album Sticky Fingers. (The tour’s name
is actually a play on the album’s Andy Warhol-designed
cover.) Due out May 25th, the reissue will feature “a
generous selection of previously unreleased Stones audio
outtakes,” including an outtake of “Brown Sugar”
featuring Eric Clapton, an acoustic rendition of Wild Horses, and
five tracks recorded live at London’s Roundhouse in 1971.
Pre-orders are now ongoing through iTunes.

David Lee Roth rejoined Van Halen, righting a longstanding historic
injustice, in 2007. But somehow, Diamond Dave had not appeared on
TV with his old band until last night, when they were guests on
Jimmy Kimmel Live. With the band performing on the show,
Kimmel shut down Hollywood Boulevard and put a huge stage
on it, and they probably needed a stage that size to fit Alex Van
Halen's drum kit on there. Judging by the performance they gave,
it's entirely possible that Roth has lost his sense of rhythm
completely somewhere through the years. But he's still one of the
great clownish presences in rock history, and he's so much
fun to watch. (He wore a giant nose bandage on the show, which
somehow made him look even sketchier. It was great!) On the show,
the band trotted out a couple of classics, "Panama" and "Runnin'
With The Devil." Watch both below.

If you happen to be awake between midnight and 1am on a
Monday night (GMT), then you may have stumbled upon Mokona‘s
Nocturnal Meditations radio show.

If you’re asleep like you should be at those times, then
you won’t have: unlike most of Radar
Radio‘s broadcasts the shows aren’t uploaded
as podcasts. If you miss them, you miss them, basically.

Some background: Mokona tends to keep himself to himself, but
has low-key released some of the coldest tracks of the
last few years. ‘Stewardess Rush’,
from Templar Sound’s first compilation, was a favourite of
Ben UFO’s, while ‘Untitled’,
featuring Ruff Sqwad’s Rapid, was a grime anthem for
insomniacs (the same people who’re awake for Noctural
Meditations, we guess). [disclaimer: Templar Sound is a label
operated independently by FACT’s Australian editor Aidan
Bennison]

Mokona’s music has always been heavy on atmosphere, and on
Nocturnal Meditations, he shows the full breadth of his ambient
collection, from new age tomes to video game OSTs. After weeks
of FACT (and plenty of others) bugging Mokona to make these radio
recordings available to hear again, he relented. Below, stream a
playlist of some of his favourite Nocturnal Meditations epsiodes
– the first time they’ve been available for playback
– and read our Q&A with...

My Morning Jacket have shared "Spring (Among The Living)," the
second single from the band's upcoming seventh studio album. Like
lead single "Big Decisions" before it, the track is accompanied by
a slow-motion visualizer that shows off some pretty striking images
of the eponymous waterfall from the album title. (Which is
apparently Yosemite's Vernal Fall, though this looks like some
pretty heavily stylized footage of it.) This song was also featured
in the album trailer that MMJ put out earlier this month. Listen to
the new track below.

Jay Z’s Tidal streaming service
relaunched yesterday with a press conference
attended by all 16 of its celebrity backers. However,
the exclusives so far have been paltry, leaving
many wondering if it’s worth the subscription fee.

Tidal’s interface also looks a lot like Spotify. As you
can see from the image above and below, the only real difference is
Tidal’s choice of blue as a contrasting colour compared to
Spotify’s green. It should be noted that the service has
looked like this since before Jay Z purchased the
company, but given that he’s positioning Tidal as an
alternative, looking a lot like the primary competition isn’t
a good look.

If you need a reminder as to what Spotify looks like,
there’s an image of the interface below that looks a lot like
the image at the top.

The post Tidal is here, and it looks a lot like Spotify appeared
first on FACT Magazine: Music News, New Music..

Mac DeMarco brought his goofy antics and trademark toothy grin to
last night's episode of Conan. He performed a high-energy
rendition of his breezy Salad Days track "Let Her Go." It
also looks like the singer stumbled across a giant O'Brien head
backstage, and was rightfully confused judging by the look on his
face in this Instagram he shared yesterday. Watch the performance
below.

As with Cable, located close to Crucifix Lane
in the London Bridge arches, the closure has been forced by Network
Rail’s expansion of London Bridge train station.

The venue has existed under different names for over 20 years,
hosting shows by the Chemical Brothers as early as 1994 as part of
Andrew Weatherall’s Sabresonic weekly. It opened in its
present guise at the beginning of 2011, hosting parties by Night
Slugs, Bugged Out, Whirl-y-Gig, Harlem Nights and more.

A press release from the club remarks that “the
establishment is at it again … Crucifix Lane is the next
London nightclub to fall foul of rich redevelopers and callous
gentrification. Just around the corner from Cable (a club that
suffered the same fate not so long ago) and in the same set of
railway arches, Network Rail are coming in to batten down the
hatches and take control of the space to make way for London Bridge
Station expansion.”

“This is yet another sad and shameful example of the
little people getting pushed aside at the expense of Londons rich
culture”, it continues. “The upshot is that the famed
arches of London Bridge, which have for so long been a bustling
creative nest in the heart of London, are soon to be just another
faceless corporate facade.”

The latest release on Niche ‘n’ Bump,
following drops from Beneath, Spatial and Samrai, comes
from Semtek.

Semtek has slowly but surely carved out a reputation as one of
the UK’s most reliable house and techno acts, both through
his own productions and his work running the Don’t Be Afraid
label (home of Mr. Beatnick’s excellent Sun
Goddess trilogy, as well as music by DJ Bone and more).
On ‘Bed Teeth’, Semtek takes things dark and gently
psychedelic – there’s no OTT dynamic swings, no
dramatic builds, just atmospherics that will sweep you away in
the right settings, and one hell of a growling bassline. Nods to UK
Funky in those stabs too, surely?

‘Bad Teeth’ / ‘John of Worcester’ will
be released in mid-April. Stream the A-side below, and
pre-order it here.

The post Stream Semtek’s growling ‘Bad Teeth’,
forthcoming on Niche ‘n’ Bump appeared first on FACT
Magazine: Music News, New Music..